The use of passenger vehicles for touring, and especially for overnight excursions, is wide-spread; and sleeping facilities are either limited or nonexistent in most vehicles. A prevailing factor is the widespread use of compact vehicles which do have limited space, both for passengers and for luggage and for other paraphernalia; and it is this class of vehicle to which the present invention is particularly directed; it being a general object of this invention to provide a convertible top carrier-living compartment storage unit for augmenting the utility of passenger vehicles, and particularly small compact vehicles.
An object of this invention is to provide a monocoque structure of low drag configuration for cooperative attachment onto a vehicle body and adapted to the plurality of purposes herein referred to. With the present invention the monocoque structure is an integral shell which coextensively overlies the roof of the vehicle and which has marginal portions supportably engaged with the said roof at the perimeter thereof. The contours of the monocoque shell are continuations of the vehicle mold lines, and to the end that there is a fairing of contour lines merging the vehicular body into the attached unit shell.
Another object of this invention is to provide a compartmented structural shell for attachment to the roof of a vehicular body and wherein there is a closure therefor which is expansible into a platform that establishes a coplanar deck. With the present invention the monocoque shell closure has two conditions, one that closes the chambered shell to establish a storage chamber therein and another that extends the upper plane thereof to a practical length as a deck.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a multi-purpose element in the form of a ladder-rack which cooperatively coacts with the aforementioned closure of the compartmented body shell, to provide ingress and egress, as well as support, and to provide a tie-down for external luggage simultaneously with tie-down of said closure.